REAL Services' Age of Excellence awardees

June 23, 2013|South Bend Tribune

Keynote speaker Amy Grant, singer and songwriter, sang five of her own songs, including songs from her newly released album, “How Mercy Looks From Here,” during her keynote speech at the 17th annual Age of Excellence Awards luncheon in May. Interwoven with her songs, she told the story of becoming a caregiver for her mom, now deceased, and dad. More than 700 participants came from all the counties served by REAL Services — Elkhart, Fulton, Kosciusko, LaPorte, Marshall, and St. Joseph — to hear Grant and the inspiring stories of the award winners.

The following awards were given in the following categories to winners by Grant and REAL Services’ board of directors Chairman Steven Watts:

Caregiver of the Year for an Older Adult Award — Vera Burger. Vera has supported her mother, now 99 years of age, ever since her father passed at a young age. She has helped family members and friends fighting cancer and Alzheimer’s.

Caregiver of the Year for a Disabled Person — Bethany Cullum. A single parent with two small children, one with a disability, Bethany cares for her mother, who has MS and is bed bound and requires total care. Care includes bathing, spoon-feeding her and even helping to care for healing bedsores, plus preparing her mother’s oxygen and medications.

Professional of the Year Award — Janice Wilkinson. Janice assisted a woman who suffered from a bed bug manifestation by taking the woman and her cat to a hotel while the woman’s house was being fumigated. She washed 18 loads of laundry, put all the belongings the woman was able to keep in storage, and checked on the woman daily to make sure she was doing alright.

Business of the Year Award — Home Instead Senior Care. Home Instead is always willing to extend its resources to meet the needs of the individual, often accommodating a change in care with little or no advance notice. The staff is known for going the extra mile for people, even when the person will move to another living situation and will no longer need their care.

Volunteer Group of the Year Award — Parrot Head Club of Michiana. Parrot Head Club has stood outside stores taking items for the food bank and sponsored an “empty bowls” event annually that supports the meals that are provided to homebound older adults. Since 2004, the group has devoted more than 4,800 hours of service to a number of nonprofit organizations in our community, and raised more than $90,000.

Education Award — Cathy Fox and her second-grade classrooms from Webster Elementary School. Cathy has a history of teaching her students about volunteering and about supporting older adults. For several years now, she has engaged her classroom in a number of activities that builds bridges between her students and the elderly, while she’s teaching them the value of service to others.

Kimble Volunteer of the Year Award — David Burke with the Culver Meals on Wheels Program. For more than 14 years, David has volunteered to be the director for the program. He has done all the intake for the program, scheduled all the drivers, made copies of delivery sheets, and delivered the meals himself — five days per week — every week of the year.

Volunteer of the Year under 60 Award — Tomme Owens. For more than 15 years, Tomme has been serving as a guardian for older adults who had no one able or willing to care for them. Her “family” were people most difficult to serve — people who were unable to communicate, unable to show appreciation, unable to say thank you.

Hoosier Lifetime Award — J. Larry Neff. Under his leadership, the first Goodwill retail store in St. Joseph County was opened and he has since opened 17 additional stores. In his 40 years of career work, he has touched more than 30,000 lives, 650 people are now employed and a number of new programs have been added that assist those with disabilities and social and economic barriers to lead meaningful lives.

In addition to the nine award winners, Judge Robert L. Miller Sr. was recognized for his lifetime of service. Judge Miller, now 92 years of age, is retired from the bench but has devoted himself to helping care for homeless veterans. He has established a group called, Miller’s Vets to care specifically for their needs.